Wellbeing and EDI Specialist in Southampton

Svitzer is a leading global towage and marine services provider operating across 37 countries with over 4,000 employees. Founded in 1833, Svitzer builds on almost 200 years of experience, and our powerful tugboats and experts in towage work tirelessly to keep goods flowing, businesses thriving, and communities connected.

In the UK, our people work in a demanding, safety-critical, operational environment. Supporting them well is not optional — it's business critical.

We're hiring a Wellbeing & EDI Specialist to provide hands-on support to employees and leaders across the UK business. This role is practical, case-led and focused on absence management, long-term health cases, workplace adjustments, and embedding EDI practices into day-to-day operations, promoting a fair, respectful and inclusive working environment across the business.

If you are motivated by improving wellbeing and inclusion in a practical, frontline environment - this is a role where you can make a difference. This opportunity is a permanent role on a part-time contract of 19 hours per week. Hours are fully flexible between 08.30 to 17.00, Monday – Friday.

Location: Remote or hybrid from one of our UK port locations (Middlesbrough, Southampton, Bristol, Gravesend, Felixstowe, Liverpool, Milford Haven or Immingham).

Salary: £20,000–£23,000 up to 10% contributory pension, life insurance, private health & dental plan, 5% bonus.

This role supports employees and leaders through sensitive workplace situations such as absence management, long-term sickness, wellbeing concerns, and inclusion challenges. You will play a visible role in strengthening EDI awareness across our workforce, through targeted EDI initiatives and promoting clear standards around dignity, respect and equality at work. You will help translate EDI principles into practical actions that work within our operational constraints and workforce dynamics. You will balance compassion with consistency, ensuring fair process, legal compliance, and genuine care.

• Managing long-term absence and complex sickness cases from referral through to resolution.
• Advising managers on reasonable adjustments and disability support in line with UK employment law.
• Supporting return-to-work planning and occupational health liaison.
• Providing guidance on sensitive wellbeing matters and inclusion-related concerns.
• Identifying absence and wellbeing trends and supporting managers with practical interventions.
• Contributing to targeted wellbeing initiatives aligned to operational needs.
• Design and deliver wellbeing and EDI initiatives that reflect the realities of our operational environment.
• Ability to educate managers and teams on EDI expectations — helping build understanding of respect, inclusion, dignity at work and behavioural standards.
• Partner with leaders to identify inclusion gaps and implement targeted, site-based actions.

You will balance commercial reality with genuine care — ensuring process integrity while keeping people at the centre of decisions.

• Solid experience in HR Advisory, Employee Relations, Wellbeing, EDI, or a related people function.
• Demonstrable experience managing complex absence and adjustment cases.
• Experience creating/contributing to EDI campaigns, awareness days and targeted initiatives that resonate within operational environments.
• Experience supporting employees with EDI-related concerns and providing clear, practical guidance on expected behaviours in the workplace.
• Strong understanding of absence management, disability support, and employment law related to equality and workplace adjustments.
• Confidence in handling sensitive conversations with managers and employees.
• Experience working in operational, unionised, environments is highly advantageous.
• CIPD Level 5+ desirable, or equivalent practical experience.

• You build trust quickly.
• You handle difficult conversations and situations with empathy, integrity, and fairness.
• You prefer practical delivery over high-level strategy.
• You understand that policy matters — but people matter more.

Building a Diverse Workplace
In Svitzer we value the diversity of our talent and will always strive to recruit the best person for the job – we value diversity in all its forms, including but not limited to gender, age, nationality, race, sexual orientation, disability, or religious beliefs. We are proud of our diversity and see it as a genuine source of strength for building high performing teams.

Don't meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that members from some under-represented groups are less likely to apply for jobs if they don't meet every single qualification. At Svitzer we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles, and we are excited about hearing from you.

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